Sheriff’s DWI arrests see big drop

Vehicle seizure, high cost of getting busted cited in decrease

T he Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office made one-third fewer drunken-driving arrests in 2014 than the year before, the fewest DWI arrests in recent memory.

“It’s definitely a big decrease as opposed to what we’ve been looking at for the last four years,” said Lt. Josh Kingsbury, who supervises the county’s DWI unit. “It’s good to see.”

Despite the drop in arrests, alcoholrelated traffic deaths in Bernalillo County — including those inside the Albuquerque city limits — shot up to 35 from 23 in 2013, said Ben Lewinger, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in New Mexico.

Lewinger said campaigns against drunken driving may be decreasing the number of “casual drunken drivers” on the roads. But there are still “gross offenders” who drive with bloodalcohol concentrations two to three times the legal limit. That explains why the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities hasn’t decreased, he said.

“The regular people who may have had a few beers and driven home in the past aren’t doing that anymore,” Lewinger said. “But there are the gross offenders still out there, and it’s much more difficult to change their behavior.”

Police, attorneys and DWI advocates credit several factors for the decrease in the number of DWI arrests, which went from 976 in 2013 to 668 in 2014. They include:

The county adopted an ordinance in late 2012 that allows the Sheriff’s Office to seize the vehicles of repeat drunken drivers, and legal fees have increased and can run into thousands of dollars. It simply costs more if you get caught driving drunk.

Social media has made DWI checkpoints less effective.

There are more ways than ever to find a sober ride home.

There are numerous campaigns against drunken driving.

The amount of money the county received from seizures has gone up as the DWI arrests have gone down. The Sheriff’s Office received $33,000 as a result of DWI seizures in the 2013 fiscal year. That jumped to $144,000 in the 2014 fiscal year.

“I think one of the contributing factors (for the decrease) has got to be the seizure law,” said County Commissioner Wayne Johnson. “The point of the program is not to make money, but to discourage people from making bad decisions.”

Simon Kubiak, an Albuquerque DWI attorney and former commissioner, said the majority of cases in which someone’s vehicle is seized end in a settlement with the owner agreeing to pay for a boot to keep the vehicle locked up for several months to a year.

Kubiak said those payments range from around $500 to $3,000. That’s in addition to the cost of hiring a DWI attorney, which can range from $1,500 to $7,000 or more.

He also credited education, local seizure laws and businesses like Uber and Lyft, which have made it easier to get a sober ride home.

“I’ve seen the numbers go down as well,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”

Lewinger said MADD had been tracking DWI arrest statistics in the central part of the state and was expecting 2014 arrests to be down. He said it’s a pattern seen by other local police agencies.

Deputies in the DWI unit make most of the Sheriff’s Office’s drunken-driving arrests outside of city limits. There are eight deputies in the unit, and two of them are assigned to process seized vehicles.

Kingsbury said processing seized-vehicle cases has led to brief stretches when there are fewer DWI officers in the field, but he said that isn’t a factor for the decrease. He said most of the time the deputies spend processing seizures takes place during business hours, and DWI deputy patrols are from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

“The time we spend out there consistently looking for DWI hasn’t changed,” he said.

Kingsbury said the grant money the county received, which pays for increased patrols and DWI checkpoints, has stayed the same in recent years. But checkpoints are netting fewer drunken drivers. He said that’s because social media makes it easier for people to learn the locations and times of the checkpoints.

Statistics for APD’s arrests won’t be available until next month, officials said.